An interview with The Deplorable Choir, Summit's thoughts on the Division 2, kid roasts Fortnite streamers and more on this episode of the DT Podcast. Click ...
Destiny Is Not Good At Games
I want to write this, because I really look up to Destiny, and he says a lot of really smart things. However, he has rare occasions where heâll speak on the subject of game design. When he does, Iâm always underwhelmed. Itâs ironic that he can speak so deeply on most subjects, but even though heâs a long-time professional gamer, his discussion about games ends up being very surface level.
Also, he banned me from his Twitch chat when I mentioned this, so Iâm gonna start documenting these occasions.
In the DT Podcast Episdode 11, Destiny and Trihex respond to a clip of Summit complaining about the design direction of The Division 2. He accuses the developers of listening to dumb casual players' complaints. This is why he thinks The Division 2 is "failing."
Destiny jumps straight into a lecture about subjective value. This shows how deep Destiny can speak on philosophical subjects, and it's a really good thing to understand. Describing the game as a "success" could mean something different to different people.
The Disappointment
This great lecture leads to the conclusion that âvideo game publishers only care about making a profit.â Wow. Brilliant revelation, this. Youâre not wrong, Destiny. Thatâs my point though. Youâre rarely wrong. You're just surprisingly obvious. I was hoping for more.
The Counterpoint
Destiny responds to someone in chat who says that developersâ ultimate goal of profit are WHY these games fail. He assumes this person simply misunderstood his point about subjective value, that profit is, itself, the only metric for success or failure from this perspective. Itâs by definition.
Maybe that person did misunderstand this. Maybe not though. Maybe this person believes that if you make a game with the best gaming experience in mind, the money will naturally follow. If the design isnât focused on catching every nickle and dime, it will be loved. The game will have a lot more staying power. Maybe these goals - profit and fun - donât necessarily have to be opposites.Â
...And maybe thatâs still dumb, but itâs an idea to explore. The oldest games around today certainly donât have as many profit-focused mechanics as the modern games that donât live longer than a couple years.Â
A New Idea
The first rule of game development is always listen to your players!Â
The second rule of game development is your players donât know what they want!
Okay, so the first rule is actually âplaytest your game,â but this is the paradox I want to illustrate. Itâs one of my favorite quirks about game design that I donât think many people understand. However, I think itâs possible this was the concept Summit may have been reaching for. It sounds like heâs criticizing Massive Entertainment for listening to the casual player base. I would criticize them for listening to the loudest part of the player base at all.
What this idea describes is that players know when theyâre having fun and when theyâre not having fun. They just donât know anything else beyond that. They canât identify what specific mechanics are fun or not. They miscalculate how much fun an imagined mechanic would be. This is why they are not the game designers.
I see a lot of modern games fail this. Itâs no wonder why though. Gamers get so offended when EA calls them âarmchair developers.â Blizzard gets so much shit for saying, âYou think you want classic WoW, but you donât.â Gamers realize that satisfying them is the goal. Specifically telling them they donât want what theyâre asking for seems like a cardinal sin. But delivering gamers the specific things they ask for doesnât always work out. Then the short term memory of the community forgets that this is what they asked for and complains again.Â
Conclusion
This is just my personal insight on the state of the industry. I feel like itâs a deeper, more interesting response compared to Destinyâs surface level analysis. Destinyâs view of subjective value is really great. Itâs important to keep all perspectives in mind, whether itâs the profit driven publishers, the artistic vision of the developers, or the ignorant emotions of the players. I think asking if a fun game will inevitably bring profit is a question worth asking. I think realizing that gamers donât accurately evaluate their preferences is a pretty uncommon idea thatâs more valuable to the discussion than pointing out that the game industry is profit driven. Might make more of these pieces, criticizing Destinyâs lack of depth on the subject, but I could also make a few complimenting him for when he does say something smart.Â
